Alice In Hells Kitchen
by acceptmyawkwardness
Summary: Karen asks Nelson and Murdock to help create a case out of nothing for an old family friend. It doesn't take much convincing, even if they can't afford to pay for Matt and Foggy's help, but when they try to help they find out there is a lot more to the story than they realized. Rated T for language.


_Spinning, spinning, spinning, she kept twirling around the crowd of people, her mind focused only on the cherry blossoms floating down from the tree looming above them._

_The world was so big and yet she was the only one among the sea of faces. Drowning in the vibrations and music that bounced off every surface, they beat against her skin as if she was the drum playing in her ears. _

_It was chaos and order all at the same time, it was happiness exploding through every vein, and she continued to loop around the strangers who meant nothing to her._

_Until a familiar voice boomed over her melodic tune. Her skin changed from the musical drum to a rubber band, pulled taut as the venom in his voice bounced off it, threatening to snap it. _

_The twirling stood still, the faceless sea of foreigners stared at her, and the cherry blossoms were nothing but crushed carpet beneath their feet. Her veins felt like they were exploding, her blood trying to escape the sickly sweet voice it knew all too well._

"_ALICE!" The voiced demanded an audience, and obedience. The now silent field echoed with malice, making her skin crawl. _

Her body betrayed her as she slowly came to, away from the wonderland of her dream and to the reality around her. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness cloaking the room, and slowly the cluttered room came into view, along with the angry face barking insults that her groggy mind couldn't even make sense of.

"Stupid bitch, CAN YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND ME? Get your dirty ass up and clean this place up! God women these days can't even manage their basic household duties…"

Alice slowly rose out of bed, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at the massive guy, knowing it would result in more of an outburst.

"Sorry, I'll clean up…" She forced the words of her tongue like tar. She climbed off the couch and started picking up the littered trash, her limbs and muscles aching from the old couch she slept on, her body still trying to wake up.

"You fucking bet you will, crash on my couch, make a mess and try to sleep around here all day. I'm going to a friends house, this place better be fucking spotless when I come back."

She looked up from on all fours at him while he put his coat on and without thinking, she slipped up, "What friend's house?"

He turned toward her and gave her a fiery look and she knew she fucked up. She looked at him wide eyed, pretending to be terrified, like the good abused girlfriend should be, and prepared for what was to come. In the flash of a few seconds he was beside her, her hair in his fist and she was pulled up, now standing in front of him.

"Are you allowed to question me? Who the fuck do you think you are?" Alice had her hands at her head, eyes squeezed shut, throat threatening to close in on itself. He suddenly threw her toward the ground and she feel back to her hands and knees. "Question me again, whore, and you'll be lucky to ever speak again. Useless brat." He stormed out of the door, mumbling more obscenities. Once he was gone she heard her phone starting to ring, she dug it out of her jacket thrown on the back of a chair.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Matt?" Karen said into her cellphone while dodging traffic in the middle of Hells Kitchen.

"Whats up, Karen, everything okay?"

"Um yeah but I might have a case for you guys, a really important one…" She was biting her lip, knowing this was a chance but she hoped they'd take it for her. "Are you guys still at the office?"

"Yeah we're here, are you sure everythings okay?"

"I'll be there in a little while okay, don't leave." She hung up the cell phone and finally caught a cab.

Karen shuffled into the office, the one they could hardly afford originally, but now they had quite a few clients that paid the bills, and they were all innocent of course.

"Hey, so like I said on the phone, I've got a case, if you guys are up for it anyway." Karen was saying as she set her things on her desk and the boys gathered around her.

"Of course we're up for it, Nelson and Murdock on the job!" Foggy gave her a little salute.

"The clients don't have any money…" She decided bluntness would be the best way to break it.

"Nelson and Murdock officially quit the job."

"Foggy come on, Karen was a free client as well, if you'll recall." Foggy was pulled back by his friend, "What is it Karen?"

"Okay so an old family friend, Peggy reached out to me and her daughter is apparently wrapped up with this really bad guy, her mom is positive he's abusing her and probably doing a lot more criminal activities."

"Okay so we'll order a restraining order and get her daughter somewhere safe." Foggy suggested while folding his hands out like it was obvious.

"Yeah there's a problem with that, her daughter refuses help. She keeps saying she's got everything under control and is hardly ever visiting anymore."

"what's her daughter's name?" Matt asked with a determined look already on his face, Karen could tell he was already convinced to help the girl.

"Alice Shepherd, I've only met her a few times but her mom says she isn't the same anymore. She's really worried about her. She's only 23 and just out of college, with an associate's degree for journalism, but she currently is only an assistant at a newspaper. But her mom invited us over, she wants us to try and talk Alice into getting help."

"She's really young.. How did she even get involved with this guy, and who is the guy?" Foggy had a look of concern on his face, for once not cracking jokes.

"Her mom doesn't know, she was distant after getting back from college and didn't tell her mom anything, she only knew she was involved with someone because of the phone call she overheard between the two and Alice completely clamed up when her mom questioned her, and then she started getting bruises and such and her mom found me."

"It's a good thing she did. When were we suppose to meet them?" Matt was already packing some of his stuff up.

"In about a half hour, but they live on the other side of town so we should probably leave soon."

"Then lets get going, Karen?" Matt had his arm out, wanting Karen to walk with him. She walked over and wrapped her arm around his, foggy behind them.

"You said Peggy was a family friend?" Matt whispered to her.

"Um yeah, she was." Karen didn't feel comfortable talking about her family. She avoided the topic as much as possible.

"We'll take care of it, don't worry, Alice will be okay." Karen was sure he was going to ask her about her family, but let out a sigh of relief that he didn't, and with that, they piled into a cab and headed to their meeting.


End file.
